Opinion in brief: Lies, more lies, etc.?

Former GE big shot Jack Welch isn’t backing off his declaration that the lower unemployment numbers — down from 8.1 to 7.8 — smell to high heavens. Well, maybe a little bit he’s backing off. He’s now saying with a tad more restraint that the numbers are “downright implausible.” Welch, of course, knows countless corporate bigwigs, and from his contacts says he can’t imagine where the lower number comes from. The figure rests on recent record numbers of new jobs created over the past two months, and such records from what he sees and hears out there “have to raise eyebrows,” insists Welch. Within the mystery of these numbers is the mystery of why so many of the supposedly newly hired are young people of college age or just out of college. If President Obama is saying, like the Marx brothers’ movie line, “Who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes,” Welch seems to be sticking to his own eyes. And ears.